Tuesday, July 31, 2007

No on is going to argue that George A. Romero’s best work doesn’t come from the zombie genre. Sure, Creepshow and Monkey Shines might be hilariously entertaining, but they're no satire featuring brain-hungry, dead-alive humans. So, it’s really no surprise that he’s heading back to the morgue in search of new zombie terror. It’s been about 7 month’s since we last heard anything about Diary of the Dead, Romero’s latest zombie film, but it looks like it will finally rise from its production grave. The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, according to Variety.

"It's not a sequel or a remake, it's a whole new beginning for the dead," said Romero, who wrote and directed the script. "I'm honored to have it premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival."

The film follows a group of students who set out to make a horror movie. Little do they know that zombies have began to infest the country – turning the tables on the filmmaking crew who become the subject of true horror. While Diary of the Dead sounds a bit like The Blair Witch project, with film students and handheld camera’s in tow, Romero seems to work well with a low budget. Here’s hoping for an October release shortly after it’s premiere in September to represent the old-school horror in the most terrifying month of the year. The Toronto International Film Festival September 6 - 15.

From worstpreviews, "Futurama" fans got a little treat at Comic-Con this year, when Matt Groening and others assembled for a panel, and actually ran a five minute clip from the first DVD movie, "Bender's Big Score!". The movie, which hits stores on November 27th, revolves around Bender being swindled by nude Internet scammers and Planet Express becoming a victim of a hostile takeover.

Here is a description by RottenTomatoes of what the clip showed: "It starts with Professor Farnsworth's good news that the people at the Box Network that cancelled Planet Express in the first place have been fired, beaten, killed, and ground into a pink powder, much to the delight of Farnsworth's crew. Fan favorite Zoidberg has some of the best scenes in the clip, including popping out of his shell on a nude beach, and reattaching Hermes' decapitated head back onto his body. Hermes looks down, and is livid to see that Zoidberg has placed his head on backwards. Confused, Zoidberg states he thought Hermes was happy because 'his tail was wagging.' Nice. The clip ends with Hypnotoad staring from out the screen, a voice repeatedly commanding the audience to buy the DVDs."

The film is just the first one out of a total of four. The other three, entitled "The Beast with a Million Backs," "Bender's Game," and "The Wild Green Yonder," will be released through 2008. Their plot summaries have yet to be revealed, but all four will be re-edited as 16 TV episodes that will air on Cartoon Network next year.

From iwatchstuff, Sony Pictures has put up the red band trailer for 30 Days of Night as well as an exclusive scene from the film after the trailer. I wasn't too impressed by the graphic novel but the movie looks like it has potential. If anything because there's vampires, blood, and, wait for it, a little vampire girl getting her head smashed in with an axe. Although the editing and camera work is pretty typical of horror films; ie. less than spectacular. It's like the director said, "You know what, let's not try to capture the action on film. Let's just shake the camera around really hard, throw in some screaming, and then we'll cut to a shot of a dead person covered in blood."

From usatoday, J.K. Rowling completed a 90-minute live chat with Harry Potter fans Monday, and the transcript is expected to be posted on the Bloomsbury site (bloomsbury .com). Beware of spoilers, though. Rowling outlines her vision for what happens to many characters post-The Deathly Hallows, her final installment in the epic tale. Among clever queries: What Muggle song would have been played at Albus Dumbledore's funeral? My Way, of course.

Spoilers

SPOILER ALERT: Those who do not wish to know what happens to the characters after the book ends should stop reading here.

Rowling said the world was a sunnier, happier place after the seventh book and the death of Voldemort.

Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

His wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children — James, Albus and Lily — while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

Harry's best friend Ron Weasley joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third person of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining the magical law enforcement squad. The couple had two children — Rose and Hugo.

Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginary animals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Phoenix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist who eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

And what Muggle, or non-wizard, song would have been played at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant and talented wizard the world had ever known?

"Surely 'I Did It My Way' by Frank Sinatra," Rowling told her fans, referring to the song "My Way," written by Paul Anka but popularized by Sinatra, among other singers.

As the chat wrapped up, Rowling thanked readers for their loyalty to the series.

"What can I say? Thank you so much for sticking with me, and with Harry, for so long. You have made this an incredible journey for Harry's author."

From AICN, Expensive-looking, slow-moving and preposterous, Space 1999 was a strange show about the moon getting blasted out of Earth orbit by a nuclear mishap. The moon - the whole moon - and its moonbase would then zip around the galaxy visiting all sorts of alien solar systems.

It was non-puppet series from puppet-series producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, whose puppet series were so soundly mocked by “Team America.” It was launched in 1975, between the “Star Trek” TV show its big-screen movie, but it reeks of Kubrick’s “2001” (1968) in its effects, its setting, its storylines and its title music. Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange” (1971) may have influenced the lycra-happy costume design (not well-suited to Martin Laundau and Barbara Bain’s middle-aged physiques). “Mission: Impossible” (1966-1973) may have influenced its casting and title credits.

The costumes, zippered sleeves notwithstanding, look in retrospect a lot like those Robert Wise ultized in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”

The new 30th anniversary set contains all 48 episodes, three of which come with commentary tracks. One is by a superfan, one is by two of the writers, and a third is by season-one producer Sylvia Anderson. I found Anderson’s the most interesting; she talks about how money-man Lew Grade (perhaps emboldened by his success with “The Prisoner”) gave his American stars, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, lots of creative control over the series. We learn Charles Crichton, who later directed “A Fish Called Wanda,” directed roughly a third of the “1999” episodes. There’s also a fascinating story about Stanley Kubrick contacting the Andersons about doing special effects for him.

Other extras:

* A short fan film, “Message From Moonbase Alpha,” which starred series regular Zienia Merton as Sandra Benes, and provided an ending of sorts for the series.* Alternate sequences from key episodes.* Vintage interviews with cast and crew.* A vintage interview with set designer Keith Wilson.* A special effects featurette.* A film publicizing a “Space City” amusement park exhibit utilizing “1999” footage.* A “Space 1999” Ice Lolly commercial.* An original year-two behind-the-scenes featurette.* A BBC behind-the-scenes segment.* Original promotional spots and theatrical trailers.* Photo galleries depicting memorabilia, special effects, and deleted and alternate scenes.

It premieres Aug. 23 on the Internet on at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

Viacom apparently has no plans to sue anyone involved!

Look! Press release!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEGEORGE TAKEI BACK AS SULUIN AUGUST 23 STAR TREK PREMIEREOscar and Emmy winners – along with the fans – team to complete Sulu STAR TREK episode begun 30 years ago

GEORGE TAKEI may be playing a hero on HEROES and serving as Howard Stern's recurring sidekick on subscription radio, but it's as the dashing Mr. Sulu, helmsman on the starship Enterprise, that he will be forever loved by the fans.

But he hardly imagined his greatest Sulu episode would come in 2007! Takei is starring in "World Enough and Time," a new STAR TREK episode produced by an amazing mix of Industry pros and fans that will be premiering at the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills on August 23, 2007, with both the premiere and episode streaming real-time worldwide on the Internet – literally a world premiere.

Plus one lucky fan will win airfare to the premiere and exclusive dinner with Takei, the writers and director of the episode. (To register to stream the episode and/or enter the contest, log onto www.startreknewvoyages.com)

It all began when STAR TREK – NEXT GENERATION writer MARC SCOTT ZICREE learned of STAR TREK NEW VOYAGES, a high-quality series of fan episodes that were getting millions of viewers and beating the networks at their own game.

"I recalled a terrific Sulu story my friend MICHAEL REAVES came up with for STAR TREK PHASE II, a series Paramount was going to do in the mid-70s," Zicree recalls. "After a year of building sets and buying stories, the studio made the movies instead, so the script was never written. Ironically, Michael's story had Sulu aging 30 years and raising a family on an alien planet, so it seemed perfect timing to do it now."

Zicree suggested to Reaves, an Emmy-winner and also a STAR TREK – NEXT GENERATION writer, that the two of them write the script together. He then contacted JAMES CAWLEY, producer and star of NEW VOYAGES, who eagerly agreed to their proposal.

Finally, Zicree met with Takei and pitched him the episode (the two had been friendly acquaintances since Zicree had interviewed Takei for his landmark book THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION). "I told him, 'You're a brilliant actor who never got the Sulu episode you deserved, and this is it." Zicree laughs. "He read the synopsis then and there and said, 'I'm in.'"

Utilizing the existing cast and crew of NEW VOYAGES, Zicree set about augmenting it with Industry pros from his own career on network shows, including top STAR WARS artist IAIN McCAIG (designer of Darth Maul and Queen Amidala) and Oscar and Emmy-winning makeup, effects and storyboard wizards from such TV shows and films as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, LOST, HEROES and SPIDERMAN 3.

Guest roles included two more STAR TREK legends – GRACE LEE WHITNEY, reprising her role as Rand, and MAJEL BARRETT RODDENBERRY, Gene Roddenberry's widow, contributing her talents as the Enterprise's computer voice. Rounding out the cast was Broadway actress CHRISTINA MOSES, as Sulu's daughter Alana.

Shot in high definition with over 700 effects shots, "World Enough and Time" boasts a level of production far beyond a network show. More than that, Zicree is proud that the story works on an emotional level.

"People who see it are in tears by the end," he notes, adding that ardent fans of the episode include such noted writers as MARV WOLFMAN, creator of BLADE, and science fiction icon RAY BRADBURY.

With the world premiere finally in sight, Zicree can breathe a sigh of relief at having finished his first directorial effort (after over 100 script sales as a writer-producer). Mentors who advised him included such esteemed directors as GUILLERMO DEL TORO (PAN'S LABYRINTH), MICHAEL NANKIN (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) and ROXANN DAWSON (HEROES). "But the best advice I got was from J.J. Abrams, who said, 'Pretend you know what you're doing!'"

Monday, July 30, 2007

From cinemablend, Whenever the creative well is running dry, you can always turn to a Stephen King adaptation for digestible crowd pleaser. It seems like that guy has been churning out a new book every six months for the past 30 years. Director Frank Darabont knows how lucrative the King well is -- The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Woman in the Room (Stephen King's Night Shift Collection) -- and he continues to milk King with the upcoming The Mist and following Fahrenheit 451, the just announced The Long Walk, according to Bloody-Disgusting.com.

While his heavy hitters like The Shining, The Dead Zone and Carrie have been huge on the big screen, Tommyknockers, Storm of the Century and IT have lit up the small television screen. But Darabont isn’t usually interested in the sensational King work, preferring the more thematic. Yet, The Long Walk’s story of a walk race (oxymoron) where the winner gets anything he wants for life and the losers get shot sounds like it will have Darabont walking off the thematic path. Like most of King’s work, the story revolves around one man’s sanity. This time, the man’s insanity is brought on by being forced to walk for his life and seeing the others die around him. Sounds more like a T.V. King than a cathartic Darabont adaptation.

From worstpreviews, During an interview at Comic Con International, prolific storyteller J Michael Straczynski spoke to IGN about the Silver Surfer film he's writing for Marvel Studios.

"It picks up right where the Fantastic Four movie left off and it's designed to answer the questions that were asked in the movie but really weren't dealt with there, which [were]: Where did he come from, why did he become the Surfer and what is he doing here now?"

When asked about the handling of Galactus in "Rise of the Silver Surfer" Straczynksi replied, "I thought it was all they could do in the course of that movie, but in the second movie, you will see more of him." He went on to say, "You don't want to sort of blow out something that big and massive for one quick shot in the first movie... Where you're showing the origin of the Surfer, that's where you do it; that's where you blow it out."

"Chronicles of Narnia" producer Douglas Gresham told audiences at Comic-Con that Disney plans to release a "Narnia" film every year until the series is complete. "Are we going to make all seven of them? As long as you keep embracing these movies as you did the first one, we will make all seven," he said.

Gresham added that production for the next film after "Prince Caspian" is scheduled to start early next year. "We finish shooting in about three weeks, 'Prince Caspian,' if Andrew [Adamson] will get down to business and do what he's supposed to do," Gresham said.

"Then [at] the end of January, beginning of February, we start 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,' which will open in May of the following year -- 2009. So our goal is to give you one every year in May starting from this coming May." [via IGN]

Click here to read more about "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian."

From Geekology, For $25 you can get these Possessed Books, which look like regular Victorian books but contain a motion detector so whenever somebody walks by the middle book will slide out. The books also emit "spooky sounds" which I imagine to be more comical than scary. If you really want to scare people, just hide in your bookshelf, and whenever somebody walks by jump out and punch them in the face.

From hollywoodtuna, Paris Hilton best start looking for a day job or find a new formula for selling her fledging pop singles, after news that she won’t be getting her £29million inheritance. The 26-year-old heiress has reportedly been cut out of her 79-year-old grandfather’s will, who is said to be ‘embarrassed’ by her promiscuous antics. According to Jerry Oppenheimer, author of ‘House of Hilton’, Conrad ‘Barron’ Hilton, co-chairman of the global Hilton chain, will now leave his fortune to charity. Source

Is this really bad news for Paris Hilton? The way I see it, she has enough of her own money that a sixty million dollar inheritance wouldn’t change much. OK, so instead of buying four Bentley’s, she will now have to settle for three and one Mercedes. Poor thing! Anyway, hopefully this is true and Barron Hilton donates all his money to one of my favorite charities: The Hollywood Tuna Wellness Fund. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great cause. It helps a poor website owner eat, drink and have sex with beautiful slutty women.

Poor Eli Roth. He had a promising future with his Cabin Fever debut, but then quickly slid down hill with his Hostel and Hostel Part 2 follow ups. And after his trailer contribution to Grindhouse, it looks like Roth is another young director who has succumbed to his own interest in dead genres and failed concepts. Amidst the Grindhouse 2 rumors, Roth’s next project was to tackle an adaptation of Stephen King’s Cell, a zombie story of cell phones turning people into mindless brain munchers. Now, it looks like Roth is turning his tension away from that, toward a conceptual failure -- Trailer Trash, a feature film composed entirely of trailers.

"What's happening with Cell is the script is not done," Roth said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., on July 28. " I've just been so focused on Hostel Part 2 that I haven't really been able to tear my attention towards it. I think right now I'm going to focus on Trailer Trash for a little bit, while kind of overseeing the script for Cell, but the script is still in development. I think that those two will be enough."

Roth – rarely humble and mostly self-congratulatory in the press – is putting a chance to step outside his world, direct a project that didn’t come solely from him and perhaps even grow as a director, in favor of a project that any movie fan has in middle school (i.e. a movie made of fake trailers).

From x-entertainment,Our nearest Wal-Mart is next to our nearest Dollar Tree, and that situation is just too convenient to pass up on. There wasn't a whole lot of one-buck goodness to be found on this latest excursion, save for what's seen above: One of the strangest, stupidest toys in the history of playtime.

"Chef Mario's Dining Disasters" is a collection of "playsets" including a tiny, flimsy toy dinner plate topped with sticky, stretch toy macaroni with various bugs and critters lurking within it. Uh huh. The bugs range from the cockroaches seen above to things so disgusting that I can't bring myself to mention them in an entry that also includes such a palatable pink donut. It'd just be cruel.

While very clearly a cheapo dollar store toy of the highest order, it's incredible to see how much Chef Mario put into his packaging. They did a real photo shoot and everything, and Mario looks a lot like Jimmy (pronounced JEE-me) from that old Polly-O String Cheese commercial. The back of the packages paint our friend as a rogue chef who has his own ideas of what constitutes as a "special ingredient," meaning he's less of an unkempt, dirty chef and more of a chef who actually thinks that rats and cockroaches improve spaghetti dishes. That's so cool.

Remarkably, it would appear that these originally sold at prices far higher than a dollar. Amazon's got 'em with $9.99 price tags. It could be worth it, if only because you'd be able to cut out this this awesome picture of Chef Mario from the back of the package and glue it to your marble notebook cover. Way more edgy and fringe than some riff on an Obey Giant sticker, I think.

From thesuperficial, 61-year-old Steve Martin married his 35-year-old writer girlfriend Anne Stringfield over the weekend. The wedding took place at Steve's LA home, and Steve was sporting his Inspector Clouseau mustache from the upcoming Pink Panther sequel. When asked what it felt like to marry a woman 26 years younger than him, Martin screamed "Oh, yeaah!!" and gave everybody high fives.

From darkhorizons, John Singleton confirms to Blackfilm that there is a race to see if he's going to do his adaptations of Marvel comics "Luke Cage" or "Black Panther" first.

Singleton says "I really wanted to do both of those pictures. I've always been a fan of Marvel comics, so it depends. I can do 'Cage' or 'Black Panther'. I've just been approached about doing 'Black Panther'."

So what's holding Cage up? "If you put a black face on it, they think it's black thing; but yet we have all these movies that have come up and whenever they any black people in it, they make all this money. That's the thing that's holding 'Luke Cage' up. They think it's a small superhero movie."

PARIS (AP) - French actor Michel Serrault, whose hit performance as a transvestite in the film and stage versions of "La cage aux folles" (The Birdcage) catapulted him to international stardom, has died, his priest said Monday. He was 79.

Serrault died Sunday of cancer in his home in the northwestern city of Honfleur, Rev. Alain Maillard de La Morandais said.

Serrault appeared in more than 130 films during a career that spanned half a century. After debuting as a comic actor, Serrault became one of France's most versatile stars, playing a serial killer, a grizzled farmer, a crooked banker and accused rapist.

"I'm against those who only want to entertain," Serrault said in 2002. "I am very happy with all the roles I've played, and I take responsibility for them all."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid homage to Serrault's "impressive filmography," calling the actor a "monument of the world of the theater, the cinema and the television."

Born on Jan. 24, 1928, in Brunoy, south of Paris, Serrault initially set his sights on the priesthood, briefly entering a seminary. He dropped out, he later explained, because of the vow of chastity.

After studying acting in Paris, Serrault began as his stage career playing in cabarets.

He made his silver screen debut in 1954 in Jean Loubignac's "Ah! les belles bacchantes" (Oh, the lovely bacchantes), which was released as "Peek-a-boo" in the United States. His first big break came in 1972, with a leading role in Pierre Tchernia's "Le Viager" (The Life Annuity.)

Speaking Monday on LCI television, Tchernia called Serrault "perhaps the greatest French actor," saying he gave to his profession "all his talent, all his strength, all his humor, all his affection."

It was his role as flamboyant gay nightclub owner Albin Mougeotte, also known as Zaza Napoli, in the theater and film versions of the mega-hit "La cage aux folles" (The Birdcage) that catapulted him to fame worldwide. His performance in director Edouard Molinaro's 1978 movie won him the first of three Cesar awards - the French version of the Oscar.

Serrault remained active, featuring in films through his late seventies. Among his final films was Pierre Javaux's 2006 "Les enfants du pays" (Hometown Boys), about the role of African soldiers in WWII.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Talk show host Tom Snyder, whose smoke-filled interviews were a staple of late night television, has died after a struggle with leukemia. He was 71.

Snyder died Sunday in San Francisco from complications associated with leukemia, his longtime producer and friend Mike Horowicz told The Associated Press on Monday.

Known for his improvised, casual style and robust laughter, Snyder conducted a number of memorable interviews as host of NBC's "The Tomorrow Show." Among his guests were John Lennon, Charles Manson and Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols.

Snyder began his career as a radio reporter in Milwaukee in the 1960s, then moved into local television news. He anchored newscasts in Philadelphia and Los Angeles before moving to late night.

"He loved the broadcast business," said Marciarose Shestack, who co-anchored a noontime newscast with Snyder at KYW-TV in Philadelphia in the 1960s. "He was very surprising and very irreverent and not at all a typical newscaster."

In 1972, Snyder left news to host "The Tomorrow Show," which followed "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

His catch phrase for the show was: "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air." Snyder smoked throughout his show, the cigarette cloud swirling around him during interviews.

He gained more fame when Dan Ackroyd lampooned him in the early days of Saturday Night Live.

In 1995, he returned to late night television as the host of "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder" on CBS. The program followed David Letterman's "Late Show" until 1998, when Snyder was replaced by Craig Kilborn.

Snyder announced on his Web site in 2005 that he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

"When I was a kid leukemia was a death sentence," he wrote then. "Now, my doctors say it's treatable!"

Horowicz met Snyder in 1982 and worked with him at WABC in New York before producing the "Tom Snyder" television show.

J.J. Abrams sure knows how to tease. Earlier this month, the pop auteur (Alias, Lost, and Mission: Impossible III) ignited a firestorm of curiosity by blowing the head off the Statue of Liberty in a grainy trailer for a nameless film. Now he's upping the intrigue with this teaser poster.

Unofficially known as Cloverfield (the name of a street in L.A. where Abrams has an office), the film, at press time, does not have an official title. If you're looking at that gargantuan hole bored in the Manhattan skyline and thinking, It's a monster movie! — congrats, you're right.

Scripted by Lost writer Drew Goddard, the movie reunites producer Abrams with Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves, who's directing and shooting it cinema-verité-style on digital video. (Think Blair Witch and the City.) The cast is made up of relative unknowns, with the lead being played by Michael Stahl-David (The Black Donnellys). As for the monster itself, contrary to Internet speculation, it isn't a parasite, and it ain't a colossal Asian robot, either. (Some suspected Abrams was mounting a live-action version of the Japanese anime/manga classic Voltron. Nope.)

For more teasers, visit Abrams' new site, www.1-18-08.com. To be continued, for sure...

From cinemablend, Even though we probably will not see an "Indiana Jones 4" trailer for a while, I thought it would be interesting to check out the trailer for the newly announced "Indiana Jones" video game.

Entitled "Lego Indiana Jones: The Videogame," it is basically a tongue-in-cheek take on the first three cinematic adventures of the iconic archeologist, including "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Temple of Doom" and "The Last Crusade." The team behind this game, were also the ones that brought us "Lego Star Wars."

The beginning of the trailer is pretty much the first Indy movie, which includes the big rolling rock made out of Legos.

From worstpreviews, As always during Comic-Con, studios wait to reveal the marketing material for their upcoming movies. As a result, we now bring you the poster for the upcoming film "The Mist," which is based on a story by Stephen King. It looks more like a teaser poster, since it only features a drawing of a man holding his face, with a store at the bottom. The tagline states: "Stephen King's legendary tale of terror."

The story is about residents of a small town who take shelter in a grocery store during a storm and begin to turn on one another when creatures that may be harbingers of the apocalypse arrive in the clouds.

Frank Darabont, the writer/director of King movies "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" is making "The Mist," from King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. Having been close to the project, King praises a new ending Darabont crafted, saying it is so unsettling that for many years no studio would touch it. At this point, "The Mist" is scheduled to hit theaters on November 21st.

From worstpreviews, Paramount unveiled the first teaser poster of "Indiana Jones 4" during Comic-Con, which showed a few painted pictures of Indy from previous films. That was ok, but now we got another teaser poster that actually has something to do with the movie. It shows Indy's hat and whip sitting on top of a crate that says "Property of Dr. Jones" on the side. In addition, we also get a tagline that makes us aware that it is another installment in the "Indiana Jones" franchise, since there is no title. The tagline simply states "He's back," with the words "Memorial Day 2008" below that.

This poster is a Comic-Con exclusive that will be very difficult to get. For all you Indy fans out there, the number written on the crate matches the number on the crate that appears in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." At the end of the film, it was placed in an undisclosed government storage facility. It is crate number 9906753, one of thousands, gathering dust in a top secret warehouse. So, is there a connection between the two films?

Stay tuned for more information and promotional material to come from Comic-Con, especially regarding Indiana Jones.

From geekology, Who knew there was such a big market for levitating globes? This one isn't nearly as cool though since it needs a top and bottom magnet.

A magnetic field sensor continually measures the height at which the globes are suspended. This sensor feeds that data into a micro computer in the base of the unit. This computer then calibrates the electronic magnets at the top of the frame based on the distance between the globes and the top magnet to keep the globes correctly positioned.There's a 4" and 8" version which sell for $39.99 and $74.99 respectively. Or a 443,520" version which I'm selling for $1 million. It floats in space and circles the sun and doesn't even need a stupid magnet.

Too poor or too busy to go to San Diego this year for Comic Con? Join the crowd. While everyone’s done their best to bring all the news out there, there’s just no replacing the feel of finding out some of this news on site, watching John Favreau walk out unexpectedly from behind a curtain or hearing J.J. Abrams hint at an upcoming project.

One of the biggest panels this year was the one for Indiana Jones, where Stephen Spielberg appeared via remote satellite and announced Karen Allen’s involvement in the fourth movie. Now, thanks to the magic of G4’s camera work and YouTube, you can feel like you were there, as the Spielberg presentation has arrived online.

Remember to go for the authentic recreation here – invite all of your friends and lots of strangers over before you watch this. Give some of them bizarre costumes and make sure half of them don’t bathe. Then project this up on a large screen, turn up the sound, and it’ll be like you were in San Diego at that exact moment.

Or just click play below and enjoy the clip in the sanctity of your own home. After all, there is a reason you didn’t go to San Diego. Who needs to recreate it.

From cinemablend, There’s no upcoming movie on the planet that I’m more excited about than Watchmen. It’s likely that just about anyone who feels the same way, is also excited for the same reason I am: They’ve read the comic and know just what an incredible piece of literature it is. In fact, probably the only people who really care about Watchmen right now are those who have actually read it.

Knowing the above, director Zack Snyder unveiled the film’s first teaser poster at Comic Con, and the poster seems crafted specifically to cater to us existing “Watchmen” nerds. I’m sure they’ll get around to marketing to the rest of you once the film finishes, but for now here’s the teaser poster they’ve put together for us.

Sony has thrown a new trailer for Resident Evil: Extinction up on the web. I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic… well… anything so of course I like the trailer. Whether or not the movie will be any good, who knows.

I still think the first one was one of the few decent videogame to movie adaptations we’ve ever gotten. In fact it’s probably the only good movie Paul W.S. Anderson has ever made. The second one was, for the most part, disappointing. Resident Evil: Apocalypse just never seemed to know what it wanted to be. Part zombie movie, part superhero movie, it just never quite fit and it certainly wasn’t scary.

I’m hopeful that the third installment, Extinction can get things back on track. The trailer looks promising. Watch it in high-res here, http://www.cinemablend.com/video/previews/Resident-Evil-Extinction-2137.html

From iwatchstuff, With the launch of another new viral marketing site by Warner Bros, supposedly made by The Joker, and more being done at ComicCon, new Dark Knight stuff has been flooding in.

You can apparently get an official HD copy of the already-leaked teaser trailer here, and there are more images and promo materials here. As a warning, I haven't finished downloading the trailer yet, so don't blame me if it's just more chipmunks eating poop.

From darkhorizons, Actors Edward Norton and Liv Tyler, Director Louis Letterier, and producers Gale Anne Hurd, Avi Arad and Kevin Feige all turned up to promote the reboot of the "Hulk" franchise which Norton himself penned the shooting draft of. Shooting began only a fortnight ago in Toronto, but some concept art was on display of what the Hulk will look like - a darker, more weathered appearance than Lee's CG creation.

Feige confirms that the previous Ang Lee film is being ignored - "This is a part one, the beginning of a whole new Hulk saga" and will utilise elements from both the TV series and comics. He also added that the aim was to add a bit of mythology and mystery back into the franchise, along with more action. To that effect this won't be an origin story says Norton - "I don't even like the phrase origin story and I don't think in great literature and great films, that explaining the roots of the story doesn't mean it comes in the beginning." It's also confirmed that the Hulk remains one size only through this, and some form of motion capture will be used on Norton for his Hulk scenes.

From AICN, Yahoo has posted four clips from the forthcoming BLADE RUNNER re-edit/face lift/partial re-edit/all-around cleaning.Included in the selection are a preview of DANGEROUS DAYS, the newly commissioned mega-documentary chronicling the making of the film, quite a bit of the retooled Zhora street gundown (for which Joanna Cassidy recently re-shot new footage), "the Unicorn scene" (which, according to Ridley Scott, is one of the substantial clues that Ford's Deckard character is a Replicant...)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Nicolas Cage loves comic books so much, he created one of his own.The actor and his 16-year-old son, Weston, took their new comic book, Voodoo Child, to the pop culture expo Comic-Con on Sunday.

Weston dreamt up the main character, Gabriel, a biracial teenage ghost who fights the evil of bigotry in post-Katrina New Orleans.

"He's specifically dealing with racism," said Cage, a lifelong comic-book collector who played Marvel superhero Johnny Blaze in the movie Ghost Rider this year.

The 43-year-old Cage made no secret of his cinematic aspirations for his new comic creation.

"I have very high hopes to push Voodoo Child into script and production ... and perhaps play a role in the movie," he said. "We have those ideas in motion."

Weston said he would like to play a villain in the film.

Cage said that Weston inspires him and that they hope to collaborate on other comic-book ideas. The six-book Voodoo Child series is published by Virgin Comics. The first issue was released this month.

"This is a highlight in my life," Cage said, "that I got to create something with my son."

The Simpsons Movie, a film that has been in production for more than four years and on the minds of fans much longer, raked in $71.9 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates from box-office trackers Nielsen EDI.

The debut was $20 million more than the most optimistic projections — and was validation for writers who were panic-stricken about alienating the show's rabid fans. The script went through 158 drafts.

"Most mornings I've been alternating between waking up confident and waking up drenched in flop sweat," Simpsons director David Silverman said before the opening. "When a show has been around 18 years, it's hard to overestimate how high expectations are."

And at least this weekend, the film met them. The Simpsons enjoyed the third-largest debut for an animated film, behind this year's Shrek the Third, which bowed to $121.6 million, and Shrek 2, which opened at $108 million in 2004.

Of course, those films weren't based on the longest-running animated show in television history. And The Simpsons, say executives at 20th Century Fox, depended on strong reviews."Obviously people love the show," says Fox's Chris Aronson. "But not as many people watch it as they used to. (Ratings have dipped from about 20 million viewers a week in the mid-1990s to 9 million now.) We needed good reviews. People needed to know there was something worth bringing them back for."

The film got the reviews, earning recommendations from more than 80% of the nation's critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes.com.

The movie also benefited from a marketing campaign in which 7-Eleven stores were turned into Kwik-E-Marts and sold Squishees and Homer's pink-frosted doughnuts. "Any time you can get audiences to literally consume your marketing, you're doing an amazing job selling your film," says Paul Dergarabedian of Media By Numbers.

The film was an easy winner over I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, which fell 44% from its debut with $19.1 million. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was third with $17.1 million, followed by Hairspray ($15.5 million), and the Catherine Zeta-Jones comedy No Reservations ($11.8 million).

Among other newcomers, the Lindsay Lohan thriller I Know Who Killed Me mustered only $3.4 million for No. 9, while Who's Your Caddy was 10th with $2.9 million. Final figures are due today.

Friday, July 27, 2007

From iwatchstuff, I'm not going to say anything mean about these pictures of Dakota Fanning because she's only 13-years-old and honesty is only reserved for adults. Well that, and I'm actually a little scared of her. If it was dark and I saw her walking towards me on the street I wouldn't even think, I'd just throw my keys at her and run.

NOTE: Was that mean? Was what I said mean? I didn't mean it to be. Oh God, she's in my closet isn't she? *Runs out of the room screaming*

More goodies from iwatchstuff: "Hot diggity--the new Star Trek poster has been unveiled! It's, um, the words. The words "Star Trek." The title, essentially. And there's some stars. One of the stars might be the one referred to in the title. Which is "Star Trek." As seen on this exciting new poster. For Star Trek."

From iwatchstuff, Typically hillbilly-style character actor Tim Blake Nelson reportedly has a part in the new Hulk film as scientist-turned-villain Samuel Stearns. Like Hulk, Stearns is bombarded with gamma radiation that turns his skin green and grants him super intelligence at the cost of a phallic head. I'll reserve my judgment and trust they find a way to rationalize the super-genius villain having the voice of Goofy. Maybe if, when defeated, he throws his hat on the ground and shouts things like "Tarnation!" and "Dag-nabbit!" I'll accept it.

From iwatch stuff, I found this Alvin and the Chipmunks teaser trailer over on Cinematical, where the writer had this to say:

'Alviiiiin! Ah, there's just something about seeing Alvin, Simon and Theodore sing Funkytown that just brings me back to my childhood, sitting at home with nothing else to do but watch those old Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoons. The first trailer for the new, updated version of Alvin and Chipmunks has just arrived over on Moviefone and -- I dunno -- it made me chuckle. Then again, I'm a sucker for these damn chipmunks. '

Awesome, so seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks reminds you of your childhood... during which you also spent time seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was nice of you to spell that out for us, I'm not sure if we'd have made the jump otherwise... Did your childhood also include getting hammered through your umbilical cord (btw, this is the most subtle fetal alcohol syndrome joke I will ever write)? I'm guessing business relationships over there require him to write that, because otherwise... wow.

Personally, I get the same feeling from the teaser as I do the poster: file this one under Garfield, Scooby Doo, Fat Albert, and the Darfur massacre.

From iwatchstuff, Looking to impress the ladies down at your favorite Hollywood hotspot? You'll be down right irresistible in this Star Trek t-shirt, the summer's hottest accessory!

In case you've never been to Comic Con, it involves bored-looking, criminally underdressed Hooters waitresses and semi-employed model/actresses passing out t-shirts like the one you see above while trying not to look repulsed by guys like this and this and this. There, I just saved you $50.

If you're in San Diego in July, I recommend the beach. There are just as many hot girls in skimpy outfits, and some of them are even underage!

Iwatchstuff, Thanks to the wonder of ComicCon exclusives, Tim Burton's film adaptation of the Sweeney Todd musical now has a poster, and it's filled with more brooding than Morrissey listening to a Cure album.

Having said that, it’s a credible rumor, and one that seems to me to be worth passing along, especially while the entire geek nation is about to walk into a Warner Bros. presentation. You want something to ask them about?

Ask them about JLA.

We’ve heard that they are interested in making a JLA film, and we’ve heard that the JLA script is pretty far along in development.

How far? Far enough for a certain Warner exec to be reading it yesterday?

Greetings, insects...this is the SCARLET EYE.

As I was taking the Amtrak Surfliner down to San Diego for the 'Con yesterday, I happened to look across the aisle and spotted a gentleman reading a script. It was some sort of JUSTICE LEAGUE project. Live or animated, I do not know. Info in bold should be redacted, please:[Someone’s identity removed for their own protection]

I know that Superman, Batman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Jon Stewart all appear in the script.Maxwell Lord, OMAC, and someone named Talia (Al Ghul?) all appear. One of the OMACs is referred to as "Beta", so the story may involve the start of the OMAC project.The SCARLET EYE has closed.

Fascinating. If this happens and we also get an AVENGERS movie in the next few years, that’s when we know that we’ve turned a corner into a new, more-complicated world of superhero movies. Like I said... fascinating.

From x-entertainment, My mother keeps all of the family photos in a gigantic plastic tub, and in those confines, they're not much good to anyone. As of late, she's been batching up packets of photos for my siblings and I, hoping we will use them for more than closet filler. I'm the youngest of seven, and there aren't too many Matt-centric photos compared to my brothers and sisters. I guess anyone would get bored after photographing six kids blowing out birthday candles, riding bicycles and opening Christmas presents. My parents didn't break out the Polaroid camera for me unless I was like, on fire, or at least juggling things that were on fire.But it's cool, because my big manilla envelope (with the word "MATT" helpfully scribbled on in permanent marker, thanks Maw) was also stuffed with a cornucopia of homemade cards, school assignments and random objets d'art created by yours truly through the years. A really broad timeframe was represented in these works -- I had everything from second grade Valentine's Day cards to poorly drawn recreations of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" done at age 17. I don't know how she ended up with the newer stuff, but considering the amount of gore and perversions found on the more recent doodles, I didn't feel like bringing it up to find out.One of the last papers pulled from the envelope was a total jackpot...

From AICN, We’re introduced to Downey as Stark. He’s a bit of an asshole. He’s a weapon designer and he’s good… and he knows it. He’s actually a smart-ass… a little in the KISS KISS BANG BANG tone of character.

He stands in front of an army group, mountains behind him. “Repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That’s how Dad did it, that’s how America does it, and it’s worked pretty well so far.”

Next bit… he’s stopped in what looked like Vegas… Favreau has a cameo as his body guard (Happy Hogan?!? Maybe not… maybe just random cameo #3, but he’d actually be a great Hogan), but Stark allows a very attractive reporter to get some time with him.“You’ve been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?” Stark: “That’s ridiculous. I don’t paint.” Reporter: “And what do you say to your other nickname, The Merchant of Death?” Stark: “That’s not bad.”

Next cut was to Downey riding in a hummer with some army guys. One of them asks to take a picture. He makes some cracks about no gang signs as he poses. Out the front window, past a smiling army passenger we see another hummer suddenly explode.We see some cuts of action as the caravan gets taken down. Downey stumbles through the sandstorm (heartbeats on the soundtrack) and in the craziness an explosion goes off right next to him, knocking him off his feet.

Next thing we know, he’s waking up in a cave, mid-section bandaged. He peels some of it off and reveals a crude contraption… a steel circle over his heart, with two wires leading down to a car battery.

A man is working next to him, whistling.

Stark: “What the hell did you do to me?”Man: “What’d I do? What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could. There’s a lot still there. Want to see? (He shakes a glass filled with tiny metal shards) Take a look. I’ve seen many wounds like that in my village. That (points to the device on his chest) is an electro-magnet hooked up to a car battery and it’s keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart.”Then we get a montage of Stark getting up, working in the metal shop with this man… prisoners both.

VO: “I should be dead already. Unless it was for a reason. I finally know what I have to do.”Man: “What are you building, Stark?”

He slams down a cooling Mark 1 mask.

Stark: “I’m working on something big.”

Then we get to see the Mark 1 in action. Glimpses of it as he puts it on and then we see some men with guns standing outside his door. We hear him coming, they look terrified… the door buckles as it’s hit. It buckles again and then if flies open, the Mark 1 standing there.

It’s bulky, moves slowly, but it is bullet-proof. The bullets bounce off. In fact there’s a moment when he takes a Universal monster-like swing at someone, misses and gets his arm embedded in the cave wall. He struggles to pull it out as one of the gunmen approach quietly from behind him, unnoticed. The man raises his gun to the Mark 1’s head and pulls the trigger.

The bullet ricochets back at the man, hitting him in the head instead. Iron Man looks over his shoulder like, “What was that?”

He pounds the shit out of these guys, sending them flying into cave walls. The whole time the guitar solo section from Sabbath’s IRON MAN is playing. I don’t know if it’ll be included in the final picture, but it was awesome in this context.

He beats down so many people, then gets to the cave entrance and unleashes on the crowd there with two wrist-mounted flame throwers.

The audience went bat-shit.

Afterwards we got glimpses of Jeff Bridges (bald, with a beard), Gwyneth Paltrow (who looks surprisingly good as a redhead) and then the only CG elements… The Mark 3, Red and Gold outfit flying through the sky, being chased by jets. Maybe not chased. They weren’t firing on him, but he did seem to want to out-distance them.And he didn’t have much trouble doing that.

The footage ended with the logo, then back to Iron Man in the sky, the jet’s catching up… he ducks his head down, opens his palms, pointing them behind him and both repulsors shoot, sending him speeding out in front of the jets, going so fast as to make a sonic boom.It was actually really incredible. Downey proved he can be Tony Stark. Favreau proved that the practical effects look amazing and that our trust in him was worth it.

From cinemablend, To counter the news of the crappy YouTube Dark Knight trailer online, here’s a more positive Dark Knight story. It appears the Joker is recruiting and wants you for his army. At least that’s the point behind http://www.whysoserious.com/, what appears to be the latest in viral marketing for the next Batman movie. The site features a clock counting down, with less than fourteen hours on it at the time this story is being run. It states tryouts for the organization will begin when the clock hits zero, and gives San Diego coordinates. I’m sure this has nothing to do with some massive convention going on right now… or the fact that Warner Brothers will be presenting their panel in about fourteen hours. Make sure to check the site again tomorrow after the clock counts down. Who knows, maybe those in San Diego won’t be the only ones in for a trick or treat.

From syfyportal, It's not very often that actor Robert Patrick gets nostalgic for old roles, but playing his popular killing machine from 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" might be too good to pass up.

James Middleton, executive producer of the upcoming Fox series "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," said his people were very seriously considering trying to get Patrick back, according to Daily India.

"We absolutely thought about that," Middleton told reporters at the recent Television Critics Association press tour in California. "We love Robert Patrick. We studied his performance as a Terminator, and think he's a fantastic actor and we have talked about him a lot."

It's unclear whether or not Patrick -- best known for roles in shows like "The X-Files" and "Stargate: Atlantis" -- will actually appear on the series, or if he would even reprise the T-1000.

"We don't know what we have for him, but love him as an actor," Middleton said. "We have talked about having echoes of the films in a lot of ways, including actors from previous movies.""The Sarah Connor Chronicles" stars Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker and Summer Glau, and will premiere in 2008 on Fox.

From AICN, Quint here. I'm working on the big wrap up for the big Paramount panel right now. But I wanted to hit this to you now.

JJ Abrams confirmed Zachary Quinto as Spock... but the big news is that Leonard Nimoy is also returning. More info in a minute... gotta run to an interview, then I'll update with photos and details!

More details... Shatner to be involved only if they find a good place for him. The script is what makes everybody excited about it. They inferred that Nimoy is coming back as older Spock, not as a new character. More details to come in the panel wrap-up!